Beginning a Poultry Farm/Hatchery - Thoughts and advice?

[Prairie Hills Homestead]

Hello all! So I started my breeding career with labrador retrievers. I raise and breed them but I will be honest. The cost to raise quality labs or dogs in general is astronomical. With that being said, I have found a love for another animal... chickens.. I am thinking of turning them into a business.
I own 7 acres (option to buy another 30 acres) and plan on building 8-10 10x12 coops with 10x30 runs for 30 birds each. I want to offer these breeds -
Black Copper Marans - selected for the darkest eggs I can find and breed continually, secondary to SOP
Silver Leghorns - for striking plumage color and prolific eggs
Blue Australorps - again color and prolific layers
Whiting Blue (yes I know they are a hybrid, it will take some time to breed to what I want and continue to produce) - color of egg and prolific layers
Meyer's Sapphire Jewel, same thing as the Whiting true blues.
Crosses between the blue layers and BCM and Blue Australorps and Blue layers -

I am looking to have about 250-300 birds.
I plan on selling eating eggs, hatching eggs, day old chicks, feathered out pullets and cockerels, laying hens and roosters when swapping out or new layers come up.
I know I need my NPIP certification and looking to get my commercial one so I can sell retail eggs.

Has anyone done this in here and if so would you mind offering advice or your opinions? I am in South Central Montana. There aren't many hatcheries around here. Some are but I don't plan to offer the same birds so I am not truly competing with them.. like someone wants silverrudds? I don't carry them but ****** does.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I offer lots of ornamental and 'hobby' breeds like sexlinks, bantams, pheonixes, araucana, marans and 'designer' mixes. Rarely do I have anyone interested in my part of Montana. Your best bets are to just get solid meaties and workaholic layers to offer

 

[Prairie Hills Homestead]

I offer lots of ornamental and 'hobby' breeds like sexlinks, bantams, pheonixes, araucana, marans and 'designer' mixes. Rarely do I have anyone interested in my part of Montana. Your best bets are to just get solid meaties and workaholic layers to offer

That's why I am working with the hybrid sapphire jewel (new this year from meyer hatchery) the whiting true blue and the two main breeds for laying (other than the rhode island reds.. can't stand them) Leghorns and Australorps.
I want to offer and work towards creating breeds that lay a lot but also lay colors.
Marans are for the dark egg colors, because who doesn't love the dark layers!

 

[Iluveggers]

I think the Whiting True Blue is actually a breed, not a hybrid. (Just not an APA breed). They should breed true.

 

[Sally PB]

I would think the first step would be to find out what licenses/permits you'd need in your area for what you want to do. Were I you, I'd buy that other 30 acres, for sure.

 

[gimmie birdies]

My son and his wife live in Bozeman. If you get started I may buy some. My In-laws have chickens, (a bunch got wiped out though, I think it was dogs.) I brought some of her eggs home last March and hatched them out. I will be headed back this March since I am to be a grandmother.

 

[Prairie Hills Homestead]

I would think the first step would be to find out what licenses/permits you'd need in your area for what you want to do. Were I you, I'd buy that other 30 acres, for sure.


***
No licenses required, I am set for my NPIP/AI certification and inspection on the 25th.
I am taking the egg candling/grading class just so I have it, in case I want to sell resale. Otherwise nothing else is involved per my state department of livestock.

 

[Eccentric]

I will be headed back this March since I am to be a grandmother.

Congratulations!

 

[Percheron chick]

My concern would be shipping. How to efficiently get birds out. What's the nearest hub? Does everything go to Salt lake or Denver adding an additional day in transit? Do you physically have to deliver them to the airport? I was shocked to learn that Privett makes the 2 hour drive to Lubbock Texas to get chicks on planes. Do you have staff and time to do that? Most of the big hatcheries are off the beaten path so they make it work but the coordination has to be a full time job. I'd start with just shipping hatching eggs and whatever you can sell locally. Work hard on quality and prove your birds worth.

 

[saysfaa]

Production strains of white leghorns can realistically be expected to provide prolific eggs. The other colors, not so much.